Getting Depressed about SERPS

acompton

For a long time, my Actinic site had pretty reasonable positions in the Google results. Some popular product page were ranking at no. 1 for the product name. I've always struggled for the key phrase 'board games', but I new that was going to be a challenge. The best I could manage was about page 4 (but that same as a number of competitors).

Then along came the Google change about June this year and it wiped me out completely. The top-ranked pages disappeared and I sank to page 10 on 'board games'.

Switching to Interspire has at least gotten rid of the 'duplicate page' problem (I had a lot of those). Some of the brand and product pages are starting to recover, and Webmasters shows that the keyword analysis is much better. However, the dreaded 'board games' is sinking fast - last seen on page 14.

Many of my competitors have fared badly sinc June, although one in particular stands out - he's the one that has paid someone to do all the link-building and social media marketing (LBaSM) that is supposed to be required these days. Curiously, he is also the one I am least bothered with because he has a very poor range of stock and a reputation for bad service.

The question is: do I just accept the situation and not bother or do I pay for the LBaSM that I don't have the time to do myself?

Gabriel Crowe

This yields an even more interesting question.

If I wanted a company to do my facebook/g+/twitter/email marketing, what would everbody do? Do you have a company that gives a decent return? Can anybody share some real figures on costs and profits on those companies that do social networking?

Chunkford

If everyone had that attitude in life it would be a very boring place.

Are you currently doing any link building?
Have you done any keyword research?
Who's the one doing LBaSM? (PM me if you don't want to post in public)

As for the "board games" keyword, it's only logical for it to be speeding up as it's easier for people to go abiove you as there is more positions avalable.

acompton

q social media (all one word)

I haven't done any active link-building for some time. I have naturally gained some good links over time.

Chunkford

that's good, but there isn't really any descent anchor text being used. It's mainly your company name your your own name, which is good for the mix but not for targeted rankings - http://ahrefs.com/site-explorer/domain/greenknightgames.co.uk#tab=backs

Have you done much keyword research? Taking a quick look, I can see better anchor text for internal links could be done e.g. family games = family board games

Chunkford

@ Gabriel - The problem with social is just that, it's social. People don't want to be sold to when they are socialising, but they will join in with the fun that can be offered - It's like being down the pub having a few beers with your mates and someone comes up and tries selling something to you. Where if they created a game around the product or offered a challenge people would be more inclined to participate, thus increasing brand exposure.

Social doesn't really give direct ROI and it's more for the long term to
increase brand creditability & strength. It's to create a culture of
transparency as they say.

You want key people in the business to have an active role on social sites, to offer direct influence in conversations and to put humans faces behind the business. It should be no more extra to do than just answering your emails, but instead it will be through a platform that has potential customers wanting authority and creditability to their questions etc.

Take skate asylum for example, that would be prime for user created videos of their latest tricks. Competitions could be done for the best trick and offer a years worth of sponsorship (considering that's what people are asking for on your facebook page), blog about it, tweet about it, anywhere that is suitable, but make each post unique to each platform.

You want it so when they do want to buy you are either already there in their face or have created such great exposure that the business is at the forefront in their minds.

Well, that's my waffle over with :p

Chunkford

Sorry Alan, I meant who's your competitor?

acompton

I've sent you a PM with the name.

I agree with your comments about the use of sociaall media as an advertising tool. However, I'm wondering if it has become an important part of the Google algorithm.

No, I haven't done any keyword research.

Chunkford

IMO, not yet. They tired it with Twitter but cancelled their direct access to their feeds in light of their social platform G+
Once G+ gets off the ground though and Google feel confident they can use algorithms to sort the mass of information out to their advantage, then we will see a 'New Google'.
But this is still along way off. They have to do battle with Facebook first, which will be interesting and probably ugly considering Microsoft (Bing) have an strategic alliance with Facebook.

I tihnk you should work on your keyword research to see decent results that you can do yourself.
This is fundamental to all SEO. Get this part right and it sets you up for an easier more profitable ride to the top.

AlanJ

@Alan, I had exactly the same problem with my own sites starting March/April this year. I had ignored link building to my own sites as I was busy doing work for others!

Quality link building is still a significant factor in the Google algorithm, as is correct anchor text internally to your site. I have managed to pull my sites back to the top of page one for important keywords by creating relevant content with my chosen anchor text (researched) and distributing to a couple of private syndication networks. The main thing with Google now is consistency. So start slowly, build up and keep going. No quick fixes.

:-O

Google still has a major problem with social media. Google + has stalled and they are still having to resort to scraping Facebook pages (cannot access profiles) looking for indicators of interaction. But unless something is clearly popular (even viral) I suspect it makes little overall difference.

That said, Facebook is now an excellent vehicle to interact with customer and prospects, as you can quickly build a list of contacts if done correctly, and a good place to get reviews posted.

As with all aspects of SEO, many portray it as a mystical science and there are lots of charlatans.

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